At the Paris judicial court,
It is a little agitated, with a strong but rushed voice, that Stéphane Plaza defends himself at the bar. The M6 host, tried this Thursday for violence against two former partners, denies the facts with which he is accused. “It was an involuntary act, an unfortunate accident,” explains the defendant, questioned by the president. He answers questions relating to an injury he inflicted on one of the two complainants, Amandine. She suffered two dislocated fingers and a torn bone after an argument in April 2022.
“I’m not saying I didn’t hurt him,” admits the TV star, who blames his dyspraxia for the injury. An illness which makes him clumsy, and because of which he claims to have already “broken a finger while saying hello”, because it prevents him from “controlling (his) strength”. A way of minimizing the act, at least making it involuntary.
“I scream in pain, he continues”
The scene takes a completely different turn in the mouth of the complainant. She returns to this episode of anger, during which Stéphane Plaza “came out of control”. As the argument progresses, he becomes more and more physically close. “I feel his spittle on my face, I put my hands in front of my chest” when “he takes my arm and snaps with a big blow,” remembers Amandine. “I scream in pain, he continues. I completely gave up, I was in a lot of pain, she continues on the stand. I told him he was the worst man. »
According to the complainant, it doesn’t stop there. Stéphane Plaza then allegedly pinned her against the bathroom wall, pressing on her throat with his forearm. “He strangles her,” translates his lawyer, Benjamin Chouai, in his pleading. The 54-year-old host then tells her that he is “the king of real estate, the king of M6”, and that she will “understand what it is to suffer”. “I didn’t push her against the wall,” denies the person concerned, without denying his last words. He claims to have only become aware of the injuries inflicted later. He apologized by SMS, signing in particular: “the most violent man in the world”.
“A certain climate is established”
This is the last and most violent episode recounted in the courtroom this Thursday. Violence which began with humiliating remarks. Like during a trip to Morocco during which Stéphane Plaza allegedly presented his then partner as a call girl, a “gift” reported for a man whose identity is debated. A scene described as particularly “embarrassing” by Emmanuelle Rivassoux, former collaborator of Stéphane Plaza, present during the meal. The host, as since the beginning of the affair, denies or invokes heavy, bold, repetitive humor.
The first year of this relationship, which lasted five years, everything went well. Then “a certain climate is established”, when the host tells Amandine that “people are jealous” and that she should not talk about their relationship. In reality, Stéphane Plaza was still in a relationship with a certain Diane, “the only one with whom I envisaged a future,” he explains. During his relationship with Amandine, the climate of control reached a crescendo. “It escalated, and it got worse and worse,” she testified on the stand. He had deviant behavior, increasingly violent outbursts of anger.” “She could have left straight away”, retorts the host, who believes that we “cannot destroy the life of another because we have suffered”.
“I’m a freak, a jerk”
Rejecting any “belittlement”, Stéphane Plaza affirms on the contrary to have always put Amandine “to the fore”. “I’m a freak, a jerk, a coward. I have always done everything to help women, I love women, perhaps a little too much, I have never been violent,” he still argues regarding accusations of physical violence. An argument which echoes “the cases of feminicides”, sends Louise Beriot, the lawyer of the second complainant, Paola, into her pleading.
The latter met the star real estate agent on the set of her show Search for apartment or house in 2021. She had “a good profile as a single mother and pretty, bubbly”, explains a witness, collaborator and companion of Stéphane Plaza since 2018. The defendant admits to having had a relationship of around a year with her but they are not aligned with the nature of their relationships. If he claims to have only seen Paola ten times over a year, she speaks more of around thirty times. The prosecutor suspects him of wanting to escape the aggravating circumstance of cohabitation in acts of violence.
Blowing hot and cold
Paola speaks of two bites, which Stéphane Plaza denies outright. But above all denigration, humiliation, and therefore psychological violence. “He blew hot and cold,” notes the prosecutor in her requisitions. “In the morning he denigrated me, in the evening he was nicer and through messages too,” explains the mother of two children, according to whom Stéphane Plaza wanted to marry her and adopt her children.
Verbal violence carefully recorded by Paola without the defendant’s knowledge to “make loved ones listen”, aware that “it was not normal the way he (him) spoke”, she explains. We hear the real estate agent yelling at him in particular “you’re the one who’s lucky to be with me, it’s not the other way around!” “. Or again: “it’s not worthy of a blonde to make fun of big tits like that”, after a breast operation that Paola claims to have done to “be on par with Mr. Plaza”. “I prefer small breasts,” defends Stéphane Plaza.
“Victim, Stéphane Plaza is not”
The defendant denounces accusations of an “organized gang”. The two complainants were in contact on social networks, with a third former partner of the defendant. Stéphane Plaza, who is not accused of having had “up to six relationships at the same time”, recalls the president, is therefore convinced of being the victim of a vendetta of wounded and jealous women ganged up for to bring down. “A victim, Stéphane Plaza is not,” protests the prosecutor, “I cannot support such disempowering speech.” She notes in passing that the person concerned “did not have a single word for the victims”. Until the end, he denies any responsibility and takes advantage of his last words to declare that he wants to “just try to get back to (his) life”. “I am truly innocent.”
While he faces ten years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros, the prosecution requested “a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment with a simple suspended sentence in full, a ban on coming into contact with the victims for three years » and a “fine of 10,000 euros”. The judgment was reserved until February 18.
Source: www.20minutes.fr
